Friday, October 17, 2008

Who? (Part 2 of 5 W's & 1 H)

Continuing down our journalistic path, we come to "Who".

Not just Who as in "Who is this website about?"

No, I think the more important focus is "Who is this website for?"

And you know the answer already - it's for clients and potential clients. So this helps us frame the conversation right away.

The first generation of my website (and many others I've run across over the years) was, to be clinical, ego-centric. The pages? "Who I Am" - "What I Do" - "What I Think".

Guess what? This site did not generate a lot of calls.

I learned, the hard way (which seems to be how I learn, and why I now teach and consult) to focus on the potential clients as the main "Who" of the website. I learned to focus on their problems, their lives, their issues, their pain, and what I would do for them. This made all the difference in the world.

I put myself in their shoes, and wondered what I would want to know before I'd feel good about making a call.

Now don't get dogmatic here, and think that who I am, the therapist, doesn't matter at all. I still let people know who I am. And they do want to know this. They want to know I am qualified, that I have some experience and some confidence in what I do. Many like to know a little about me, too (I coined the term "Resonance Niche" to acknowledge my belief that potential clients will often be drawn to a similarity in your life - such as a high-tech background, motherhood, being from a different part of the country, etc).

So, I've got to run to see my own clients, so thus endeth the lesson for today.

Just remember the Who is them, not you :-)

Best, Peter
Get Clicks, Get Clients - Your Google Guy

2 comments:

Steve McCready, MFT said...

I've got a slightly different take on this from a lot of the conventional marketing wisdom out there.

I *do* think that landing pages should focus on the client. However, I also think that including information within your site about you, your beliefs, and how you approach your work is valuable.

I have a couple of pages on my site that focus more on how I work with clients and some of my beliefs, and it's not unusual for clients to say that one of the reasons they called me is because of some of the content on those pages.

-Steve

pe said...

Steve,

I believe it is an interesting balance to strike. Maybe the one sentence approach would be "How Who I Am Can Help You" :-)

Best, Peter